The Florida Department of Health (DOH), Bureau of Epidemiology's proposes Linking Florida Cancer Registry Data with Hospital Electronic Medical Records. Specifically, DOH will collaborate with the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA), two hospital systems (Broward Health and Baycare Health), and the Florida Agriculture and Mechanical University (FAMU) and the University of Miami (UM) to enhance data capture to increase the scope of research to reduce the morbidity and mortality due to cancer and other co-morbidities. The Florida Cancer Data System (FCDS), statewide cancer registry, collects patient demographics, tumor diagnostics, and the initial course of treatment from hospitals and outpatient facilities as mandated by state laws. The FCDS and two hospital systems will use the AHCA planned clinical messaging service of Health Information Exchange (HIE) system as the vehicle to exchange cancer patient's clinical and laboratory data. Each participating organization (FCDS and hospital systems) will develop an interface between its own data system connection with the HIE. In addition, hospital systems will develop computer programs to identify eligible patients who are either diagnosed with cancer or treated for cancer, and to process coded and noncoded (texts and images) medical records. FCDS will develop software to link the incoming medical record data with current cancer reports using probabilistic matching algorithms. The linked data will be documented. Protection of patient's confidentiality will be enforced throughout the project. Researchers will conduct a pilot study on breast cancer patients using the enhanced data with detailed information on co-morbidity and treatment. A plan will be developed for disseminating data to other researchers. The experience and lessons learned from this project will assist AHCA with implementing its statewide HIE system. On the other hand, incorporating the data exchange between FCDS and the hospitals systems in the statewide HIE system will be an ultimate plan of sustainability. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This study will link cancer registry data with medical electronic records for cancer patients. A pilot study will compare treatment outcomes using enhanced data. The expanded data will be invaluable to comparative effectiveness research on cancer treatments. The knowledge obtained from this study will assist Florida to implement statewide HIE system and useful other state cancer registries for their data linkage.